How mystery shoppers can help your salon

Salons that can create an emotional connection with their clients will benefit from higher retention rates, increased profit margins, and improved revenue.

So can you really afford not to audit your client's journey?

Industry business coach Peter Lunn, who specialises in CRM programmes, looks at the importance of using mystery shoppers to stay in touch with your business.

The benefits of using mystery shoppers...

• Increase your client retention
• Find out what your clients think of your services and products
• Find out if clients want more from you
• Compare your service levels to your competitors
• Check on your team to see how well they treat your clients
• Report on your staff performance and identify any training needs
• Find out if your competitors are stealing your clients because they offer higher service levels
• Find out if a member of your team is actually driving clients away
• Remember, it's not how quickly you answer the phone, it's how you engage with the client that counts
• It's not what you say it's how you say it!
• Some people meet, but don't greet, losing the client before you've even started their hair.

How mystery shopping can help you...

It's imperative that your business understands the needs of your clients and it is critical to get an objective view of your current service levels. Mystery shopping programmes are designed to give you a precise and informative report based on the quality of your service so that you can secure your customer base and improve your business efficiency by looking at your business through the eyes of your customers.

However, client experience auditing will only address part of your customer relationship management. Once you know what's going wrong, it's how you implement and manage change that really makes a difference. 

The audit should not be viewed in isolation, the results need to be analysed and matched with solutions, and then managed to a successful outcome.

Finding the right company to audit your client experience...

• Work with client care industry experts who understand your business, its staff and clients and who is able to diagnose the overall client journey
• Ensure you get accurate, reliable and easy-to-understand information along with solutions
• Ensure that all your branches are giving a consistent level of customer service
• Confirm whether your staff are promoting/cross-selling services and products they have been instructed to promote
• Benchmark your service against that offered by your competitors.

How your staff will react...

Staff reaction to mystery shopping may sometimes be perceived as negative, but in my view they welcome it if you teach your staff about the process, and mystery shopping will become part of your culture.

It's quite funny how staff can become aware, and suddenly every client is a mystery shopper, which keeps everyone on their toes. 

It's harder to make poor performers improve than it is to make your good staff brilliant.

Through a client experience audit your team will become more aware, and the focus will change for the better towards their client retention rate.

The short-term benefits...

One of your immediate benefits is that you're making a statement to your team about your service criteria.

The act of measuring this criteria instils a sense of accountability and purpose across any business of any size. The audit is the most cost-effective way to articulate quality vision, and demonstrates that the business means it.

Benchmarking reveals the good, the bad and the ugly. Therefore you can harvest all the good and spend time where it counts - correcting the few areas that are hurting you.

Mystery shopping is the most frequently used and effective form of improving performance, therefore offering an immediate return on the investment. 

What happens next...

When your report arrives, the reaction is to immediately look for a way to fix the problem rather than discovering why the problem exists in the first place. When this approach is taken, the problem generally continues to surface and changes are minimal if at all.

If the information you receive is not used correctly, you will not receive the full benefit of the audit. Remember, the survey is only the start and the information forms a crucial step towards change management.

Make the most of your findings...

You're focusing on the most important person - your client - and what they want from you in skill, knowledge and service.

Part of the auditing process will also flag up training needs within your team. It will form part of their continual personal development plan by having a measure of client satisfaction at a specific point in time. This information can be fed into their appraisal and reward programme.

All these outcomes are positive and all of them enable you to form a strategy for how you are going to enhance your clients' experience and journey. 

So, let me remind you: "Why should you care, why is it important for you to pursue a new course of action?"  Because if you are slow to take action then your competitor will, as they're making it a priority.

• Peter Lunn will be one of the speakers at HJ Business Live on 23 June, along with Will Carling and Sahar Hashemi. For more information and tickets call Daniel Eversfield 020 8652 8845.